Moral implications of dire climate science news

In his TED Talk "Climate Change is Simple" David Roberts explains that the latest climate science puts us perilously close to starting a runaway greenhouse effect. If we don't stop business as usual within the next few years, we'll lock in feedbacks to destroy everyone's future.

Because numbers and models don't penetrate our thick skulls well, I bluntly spell out what this means.

The problem is that the feedbacks are nonlinear and can escalate rapidly once tipping points have been crossed.

Lest you think this is the most alarmist prediction, consider what Dennis M. Bushnell, the Chief Scientist at the NASA Langley Research Center suggests.

NASA’s Dennis Bushnell, for his part, estimates that the average global temperature increase expected during this century once these feedbacks have been accounted for would amount to between 6°C and 12°C (10.5°F-21°F).(76) Warming of such apocalyptic proportions would be entirely horrific: it should be remembered that it was a 6°C (10.5°F) increase that triggered the end-Permian mass extinction.